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Why the new Book?

Live Pterosaurs in Australia and in Papua New Guinea was just published in e-book format (Amazon Kindle), the first nonfiction cryptozoology book of its kind, as far as I know: sightings of modern pterosaurs living in the southwest Pacific. Some of the sightings have been covered in my first book, Searching for Ropens, so why this new publication?

1. We need more Australian eyewitnesses to come forward

I have no doubt that in Australia many eyewitnesses of modern pterosaurs have kept in the shadows to avoid publicity. My new e-book encourages them to come forward and tell us about what they have encountered, even if they want to be anonymous.

2. The new book has new sightings in Australia

Several Australian sightings, in this new ebook, have never before been published in any book, to the best of my knowledge. These are fascinating accounts, supporting the 1997 Perth sighting report.

3. It may be affordable to at least a few readers in Papua New Guinea

I don’t expect any significant sales figures from Papua New Guinea, for less than 1% of the population have even thought about purchasing a digital reading device, and almost nobody there can afford one. Nevertheless, some citizens of this third world nation are gaining some computer access, and Amazon has made available a free Kindle-software download.

4. This book is shorter than Searching for Ropens

Why does the world need a nonfiction cryptozoology book (on modern pterosaurs) that is shorter than Searching for Ropens? Not every reader enjoys a full true-life adventure story; some prefer just the eyewitness accounts, and Live Pterosaurs in Australia and in Papua New Guinea leaves out many details about expedition experiences, concentrating more on the eyewitness reports.

5. It has new insights

This includes new ideas and perspectives, not just new ways of expressing old ideas, and these are best presented in a new book.

[Interview of a World War II veteran] Hodgkinson: “. . . It was huge. . . . the wing flaps were maybe about one or two seconds in frequency, and the brush all below was totally swaying from the down-rush . . . It turned around and came back, and it was up . . . maybe fifty or a hundred feet above us . . . We got a perfect side view of it. I was just totally fascinated. . . . It had the large appendage out the back of its head . . .

I can’t remember why our vehicle had stopped. Maybe we had to wait for another vehicle to pass us. I don’t know. But I can still hear that slow flapping sound in the stillness of an early tropical morn, on the road from Panguna down to Loloho on Bougainville Island in 1971.